Well, well, well, I really enjoyed the opening round of the 2024 Six Nations. I didn’t see Ireland smashing France like that and it’s always nice when it’s not your team imploding like Scotland did against Wales (although I thought the win was just about deserved in the end). Italy were a lot better and England feel brand new so what does that mean for the second weekend? Take a seat, young ‘uns, and let Uncle Craig’s tell you EXACTLY how it will play out.
Scotland vs France
Will either team be as bad as they were in parts last week? No, I don’t think so. Scotland have won four out of their last five matches against France in Murrayfield and have always been competitive in recent years. Toonie has shuffled the deck and Jamie Ritchie is oot with Rory Darge taking his place (although at 7 with Fagerson at 6). Which is quite significant seeing as he was the former captain, but (apparently) form and fitness have dropped off.
France have changed two: Bielle-Biarrey is now on the wing and Gabrillagues is in the pack to replace Willemse who is on the naughty step. No surprises for me here.
France missed Dupont last week and will miss him this week. Scotland will be looking to build on their win and won’t drop off like they did against a callow Welsh team. However, if France can find their groove it should make for an interesting match. I am going for a narrow win for the Scots given their recent Murrayfield form and a suspected kick up the arse in training this week. Looking forward to it.
24 – 21 to the Scots.
England vs Wales
So, the main event innit. Third best side in the world at home, etc. I think this Welsh team are too inexperienced at the moment. It’s one thing to throw it around against a team who have put nearly 30 points on you and you have a roaring home crowd at your back (especially when the other side commits 16 penalties in a row) but another to do it again in an away game. Don’t get me wrong, both sides are fairly new but I think England will win comfortably.
No changes for England; quite a few for the Welsh. North is back at 13, Mann is an injury replacement at 6, Tomos Williams at 9, Lloyd at 10 and Gareth Thomas, Dee and Assiratti make for a completely changed starting front row.
As I said, both teams are rebuilding but England look more settled (given the number of changes) and are at home. So I expect a comfortable win but this expectation has come back to bite me before.
27 – 20 to Engerlaaaaaaannnnnddddd!!!!!
Ireland vs Italy
The last game of the weekend will be a ‘Pro-displeasing hammering for Italy. Having dispatched France in Lyon last week Ireland are playing some great rugby at the moment. Skilful forwards, intimidating backs: I can only see this going one way. Italy will be competitive in parts and will score some tries but it won’t be enough.
Both sides have made a few changes. Andy Faz has shuffled the back row and given Doris the captaincy; Casey is at 9 and McCloskey is at 13. Amongst the changes for Italy, they get Capuozzo back, which will sharpen their attacking edge, and Varney and Zuliani will start. It won’t help them though.
Ireland will be physical, ruthless, aggressive and will rule every facet of play. Italy will be everyone’s favourite underdog but will probably get carded at least once. Easy home win for the Green Meanies.
50 – 15 to Ireland.
Cheers!
Unbounded optimism by Craigsman.
Onna telly this weekend
Showing matches that are televised in the UK and Ireland or on popular subscription services. Bold indicates that it’s on a free to view channel. Times are in the UK zone, so adjust as necessary.
Friday 9th February
| Ireland v Italy U20s | 19:15 | iPlayer |
| England v Wales U20s | 19:15 | S4C / iPlayer |
| Scotland v France U20s | 20:00 | iPlayer |
Saturday 10th February
| Scotland v France | 14:15 | BBC1 |
| England v Wales | 16:45 | ITV1 / S4C / RTÉ2 / STV |
Sunday 11th February
| Ireland v Italy | 15:00 | ITV1 / STV |
Ovally Balls 
It may come as a surprise that I’ve gone through several incidents from the ScoFra game with a fine tooth comb.
vdM – there was a hand on Fickou’s shoulder, Owens said on coms that it didn’t constitute a high tackle. Obviously that supports a Scottish perspective so I’m going to go with it. It instinctively looks like vdM was offside when he took the interception, but I think it was open play, for a ruck to be formed you need a player from each team on their feet over the ball. For an offside line to come into play at a tackle there has to be at least one player on their feet over the ball, there wasn’t in this case. No offside.
there is an infringement in that Rowe ran into the back of B-B as they both approached the ball, I honestly don’t see that given very often if at all.
As for the no try at the end, the officials got themselves in a right old mess, the TMO seemed to say the ball was grounded but the way the question is framed means there has to be conclusive proof of the ball on the grass. From the pictures we all saw I find it impossible, or at least incredibly unlikely that the ball wasn’t grounded, but there was no picture to prove it beyond any doubt.
On the positive side for us, Darge was very good and more than justified his selection. Schoeman was brilliant in the tight and in the loose, but young Harry Paterson was my pick for Scotland, seemingly he only heard that he was making his debut a few hours before the match as Steyn dropped out due to his wife going into labour. Paterson looked assured under the high ball and played a big part in White’s try.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Agree on the mcDuhan tackle there, TIcht, it looked horrible from one angle, but the others clearly show hand grabbing shoulder, and it was nowhere near even a seatbelt tackle, no issues.
The try was really harsh, if you consider the shape of a rugby ball, and the part of the decal on it that you could see, there is no plausible way that some part of the ball was not touching grass, but as you say, framing of question is the problem. I would argue that they should have made sure that they got over the line cleanly, it was nearly held up two phases earlier, clear heads in pressure situations needed. Mind, it was an unbelievable play by Finn to get them into that situation in the first place, getting the ball back in that situation was a miracle. Sean Edwards won’t be happy. Never mind, Grand slam next year.
Yes , young Patterson was good, as was most of the team. I think maybe you are one rampaging heavy balls carrier short in the pack, Scottish Grand Slam next year tho :)
On review, I also thought Grady’s yellow against England was harsh, it was a split second away from an intercept, not an obvious bat down. Thems the laws, I guess.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Edit before posting. Hmmm. Also, Daly butchering a 3 on 1 with a kick thru reminded me why Jonny May probably retired, It became a default setting with England under Eddie, and Ireland seem to be the only other country in the Six Nations that persist with it at frequency, its a League thing, so no surprise there. France , Scotland, Wales and Italy seem much more confident committing a defender and slipping a pass, it always strikes me as a lack of trust in basic rugby skills.
LikeLike
Italy are gonna be ground to a fine paste, aren’t they?
LikeLike
The wee lad singing Ireland’s Call! He’s better than the woman was!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Some pipes on the wee lad, well done him
LikeLike
TRY Crowley!
LikeLike
A very smiley Crowley, I’d like to point out.
LikeLike
Why does it feel like Ireland let Italy have a go and then went “look, this is how you do it”?
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Thaum – missing the perma-scowl?
LikeLike
Refit – s’okay, we’ll have POM back next time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
TRY Sheehan! (Nearly blew it, mind.)
LikeLike
Bit of a risky finish by Sheehan. Could easily have been held up there.
LikeLike
Yep, Stu shoulda gone himself.
LikeLike
TRY Conan!
LikeLike
Was Crowley injured during the WC?
If not, one can only dream of what could’ve been, had he be selected ahead of Sexton. He brings the same uncertainty as JS did in Ireland well rehearsed moves but he adds a running threat that JS could rarely bring, therefore more questions for the defence.
Italy are in for a hiding.
WRT to yesterdays game in Murrayfield, one must feel sorry for Scotland, but also for the refs as the game becomes impossible to ref and they end up bearing too much responsability for the outcomes.
LikeLiked by 2 people
TRY Sheehan (again)!
LikeLike
Almost a hat-trick for Sheehan,
LikeLike
TRY Henshaw (if it wasn’t a double movement)!
LikeLike
Yep, no try.
LikeLike
Getting ugly for Italy now, Ireland are just relentless and make so few errors. Italy perhaps not at their best, but everything gets punished. Thought Sheehan should have been penalised when he failed to score then as he very obviously tried to place the ball to score and then moved it back to stop Italy possibly winning it. It matters not at all of course.
LikeLike
Menoncello going to contemplate his navel for ten minutes for tripping Lowe.
LikeLike
All three Ulstermen on the pitch now. It’ll be a proper rout.
LikeLike
Commentators always say a trip used to be an automatic sending off and we were told that at school. Watch old rugby though and you will see occasional trips and the offender not sent off, just as they weren’t for loads of the other things they were supposed to get sent off for.
LikeLike
TRY Lowe!
LikeLike
Strong finish that!
LikeLike
@CMY – they say that because tripping is a ‘dirty, sneaky’ think to do, and rugby’s the honourable sport. Not like the common footballer, who does that all the time.
Urghhhh, I feel dirty typing that out.
LikeLike
@Refit – probably a fair reflection of the attitude.
LikeLike
Larmour is an absolute liability.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry commentator, whatever Italy are doing it isn’t staying in the fight, they haven’t been in the fight since the second try.
Ireland getting a bit scrappy now which is a surprise.
LikeLike
TRY Nash! I’d nearly nodded off.
LikeLike
Pretty much as expected, although would’ve been nice to see Italy score a couple of silky tries. Did Ireland get the BP against France? Has a GS winning side ever done a full house of points (now that you get bonus points, obviously!).
LikeLike
JGP gets white-line fever and drops the ball just short of the line. Oh well.
LikeLike
Deebee – we did. Only side to get a BP win last weekend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Italy were a bit disappointing, really. Expected great things from Capuozzo, and he delivered a couple (nearly robbing Sheehan of the try, and stealing the ball from Larmour), but I get the sense he’s not really match-fit yet. Perhaps this will have done it!
LikeLike
Not quite as crushing, score-line wise, as I thought it could have been. Though Ireland never looked like even conceding points (with the exception of the missed penalty at the start). Can’t wait for England to flounder against them.
LikeLike
Ominous. Rassie and Co will be poring over these matches looking for any chinks in the armour. Not many, let’s face it.
LikeLike
Next round sees Ireland batter Wales and France clobber Italy (maybe by not as much as some may think), leaving Scotland-England as the only possible question mark. One horse race this year, with Scotland, England and France battling for runners up.
LikeLike
I imagine Rassie will back his team to have a very low error count of their own, play risk-free rugby with a very strong kicking and chasing game and a suffocating defence. Not sure how much he actually needs to watch anyone else to come up with this though I’m sure he does.
LikeLike
Ireland’s only chink is that they really push the offside line. A couple of early penalties against them and a headstart may pin them back a bit, but otherwise, they are looking scary, and Italy had zero room to build any sort of attack. The only thing I can see England being better than them at is building an awesome caterpillar, which I do not see as a valuable skill.
Think I would have given Conan man of the match.
LikeLike
SBT – obviously, I would have given MotM to McCloskey, who set up at least three of the tries.
LikeLike
Nice to see Mr Kitson was on top of all the results from the weekend…
“Three away wins on the opening weekend of the Six Nations, three home wins in round two.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
CMW, the Boks began to evolve into a more attack-minded side in 2022, especially on the end of year tour, and I don’t think their attacking was too shabby against France in the QF either. The SF and Final are needs must and bloody right we reverted to all hands on deck defence first! I’m hoping that Rassie gives Canaan Moodie some time at 13 this season, where many feel he’ll be a fabulous attacking catalyst, but we’ll see.
Anyway, not time to talk about all this yet, when we’re only two weeks into the 6N, apologies for bringing it up. Not sure anyone can live with Ireland at the moment in the 6N, they’re playing at another level – not Wales or Scotland in Dublin, whilst England at HQ could pose problems, I can’t see them actually beating Ireland.
As for Kitson’s article – as you pointed out, BB, he obviously didn’t bother checking his own article (or perhaps watching the matches, which give a clue or two about who the home side is!). And then just trotted out another piece bashing the game.
LikeLike
Kitson kills konversation katastrophe!
Or it was Rassie.
LikeLike
Maybe they were in it together.
LikeLike
LikeLiked by 3 people
Business as usual then, Ireland continue to look unbeatable, Scotland bottle another chance to close out a big game, and England coaches waffle on about young teams performing well and making progress. I would probably be happier to be in Welsh shoes currently, thats a proper young team,at least.
Also on the same front, Chiefs win another Superbowl, and the labour party suspends support another candidate for anti-semitism for, erm, telling the truth. Good grief.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bloody hell, WP is so scuffed. My post above was showing me the Andrew Forde video, from a couple of pages back, until I refreshed.
LikeLike
Tim – I’m not sure “Israel organised the Hamas attack” is exactly the truth, which is what the candidate said.
LikeLike
Is that what he said, Refit? I thought he said that Israel knew about it and let it happen, which is not the same thing.
LikeLiked by 1 person